Without a trace
by littlesailor
Summary: Alpha Force are off again, this time targeting the officials - Departamento de Polícia Federal - Brazil's Federal Police. Ana and Xavier Verde are wealthy children that go missing. Alpha Force and Samantha Jacobs are on hand to help.


Without a trace

Chapter One

(A/N This is my first ever Fan Fiction, so if it's crap then please tell me. Basically for starters I don't speak Portuguese so this is going to have to be in English, also I don't know much about Brazil having never been there so I am just going to have to do my best. Any tips/comments would be much appreciated. Cheers. Oh and while I remember Xavier is pronounced like (havier) yeah, basically)

It was the end of another long day for Ana Verde at her new high school in the bustling city of Sao Paulo and she was now off to collect her younger brother Xavier from his Primary School just around the corner. As soon as the school bell rang, Ana hurriedly left to pick up Xavier as her mother worried when they were home late. She reached Xavier' school in a matter of minutes and then went on to wait for him to run out of the gates. He soon arrived and the two set off for the short five minute walk home. As they trailed home exhausted after a long Monday at school a Mercedes with blacked out windows pulled up along the deserted pavement, Ana hurried Xavier along, she didn't like the look of the man stepping out towards her and Xavier. She took a step in front of Xavier and stretched out a protective arm to instinctively shield the seven year old from this dark stranger.

The man stepped out of the Mercedes and began walking towards the children. Ana slowly backed towards the wall with Xavier behind her. The man cornered her and grabbed both children by the wrist and wordlessly dragged them to the black Mercedes. Ana screamed as loud as her small lungs allowed her to as the man hurled them into the car and onto the plush leather seats. Ana knew that no one could hear them and no one could see them, this road was always deserted but it was the quickest way home. Ana was terrified, her and her brother would vanish without a trace.

Meanwhile Alpha Force were trying their hand at surfing in sunny California. It was the summer holidays and they decided to meet up for a relaxing break while Amber's Uncle kept alert in case a challenge was to arise.

"Amber come here." Yelled Li "I want to show you something" Amber hopped of her board and ran over to Li who seemed rather absorbed with a book.

"I was reading all about crime in Sao Paulo" explained Li

"that's cheerful" retorted Amber sarcastically. Li frowned at her comment.

"Do you know how many children go missing in Sao Paulo alone every year?" asked Li

"No I don't" replied Amber.

"Well according to my research the figures stand at one person every day, in my opinion that is thousands too many."

"Look Li, I understand your concern I really do, but it is not our job to worry about every criminal activity in existence and right now we are on holiday, I am sure soon enough my uncle will have a new project for us to focus our energy on. Right now can you do us all a favour and try and relax, come on the water is lovely."

"I'll be down in a minute" said Li

"Fine suit yourself" responded Amber and she ran down to the waves to join the others, who were all trying to surf and failing miserably. Surprisingly Hex was actually better than Alex and Paulo. Amber found herself fixated on watching Hex surfing – or trying to – he was actually quite…

"Amber come on down" her trail of thought was interrupted by none other than Hex himself.

"Alright I'm coming!" Amber yelled. She went to retrieve her board from the edge of the ocean and then paddled out to where the others were floating about.

"Paulo?" Amber called

"Yeah?" he replied

"Can you go and talk to Li, she is refusing to let herself enjoy this holiday." Amber complained.

"Yeah, I'll sort her out" Paulo smiled mischievously and ran off to where Li was still moping around to bug her into enjoying herself. Li was still sitting on her towel reading when she saw Paulo abandon his board and start jogging along the sand, towards her. "Hey Li, come and swim, the water is gorgeous." Paulo said.

"Amber put you up to this didn't she?" Li sighed.

"So what Li, this is our holiday you should be enjoying yourself!"

"How can I enjoy myself when there are all these kids missing just hours away?" sighed Li, she sounded defeated.

"Please try Li" Paulo extended his hand towards Li and she reluctantly grabbed it, Paulo pulled her up and ran off with her down to the sea.

"Here is your board" said Paulo. Li had a look at it; it was black with silver flowers down it and two fins at the back.

"I suppose it's quite cool" said Li laughing. Li had decided to stop worrying, for now at least.

Li and Paulo weren't officially a couple but they may as well be. Hex and Alex were positive that he would ask her out soon. Just looking at them you knew there was something there. Amber watched them both giggling and her gaze automatically transferred to Hex, now what is going on here? Amber thought to herself. Hex caught her gaze and smiled in her direction.

"Want to go and get some ice creams for the gang?" he said.

"Yeah sure" muttered Amber, "Let's go!" They both strolled up to the beach in companionable silence, Hex found himself drawn to Amber, she was in a print bikini with a wetsuit over the top, she had the wetsuit half way down while she was out of the water. He could see the water slowly drying off her and wondered when to tell her how he felt.

Back in Sao Paulo, the Verde's mother was waiting anxiously for her children to return home from school. She was sitting in the giant Verde Mansion on one of their large antique sofas. She glanced at the antique clock sitting on her mantelpiece. The time read four o'clock, they were late. Her children were never late, she was trying not to worry just yet, but in the back of her mind. She knew something wasn't right.

She heard a knock on the door, the guards would answer it, but with a flicker of hope that it might be her children she sprinted to the door. The door slowly opened and the face of Samantha Jacobs stared right at her. Of course Mrs Verde recalled inviting her distant relative over to stay. "Hi I'm Sam" Sam stated.

"Hi Sam, it's a pleasure to meet you" responded Mrs Verde. Samantha Jacobs was English and had no Brazilian roots, she was in the family due to marriage but she was always keen to meet her family over there. She had just finished her last year of school, and decided to hop on a plane to visit her younger cousins.

"I am very sorry Sam, this is a bad time. I think my children have been kidnapped" said Mrs Verde nearly breaking down in tears. Sam reached over towards Mrs Verde and said "don't worry we will sort this out."

"No police!" shouted Mrs Verde, "they are corrupt, we cannot involve them. Many children go missing and the kidnappers charge large ransoms, the police are often bribed by the kidnappers, they accept money in return for not telling us where the children are" Mrs Verde was growing more hysterical as the minutes went by.

"It's ok Mrs Verde, I understand. Look I am going to study forensic science at university next year. I am hoping to become a detective after that. I know someone, he is American and his name is Mr Middleton. I can give him a call I am sure we can arrange something without involving the Brazilian authorities. But first, we need to know they are missing, the time is now four – fifteen. What time are the children usually home?" Sam was now completely committed you could hear it in her voice. Nothing was going to stop her finding these children and returning them home.

"They are usually back by quarter to four." Mrs Verde wept.

"Ok look, you need to calm down, we don't know anything yet, we cannot assume. Look I have my car here lets go for a drive around" Sam was always the voice of authority even at the age of eighteen.

Sam lead Mrs Verde out to her small yellow mini that was sitting being guarded outside the large Verde Mansion. Sam took the key out of her handbag and plinked the lock open. She opened the driver's side and hopped in. She put the key in the ignition and squeezed the accelerator, the engine roared to life and Sam sped of to Xavier's school, she had programmed the address into the sat nav, Sam didn't like to use it usually but in this situation time was of the essence. They didn't have time to waste. Mrs Verde was now sitting silently in the passengers seat, her worst nightmare was springing into life. Sam pulled up outside the primary school which was now deserted. She wasted no time in jumping out of the car and running into the schools reception area. She saw a teacher step out of the office.

"Excuse me" said Sam.

"How can I help you miss?" The teacher responded.

"Two children have gone missing; the youngest one attends this school. Xavier Verde?" stated Sam.

"Yes, I know him, and his older sister, she only left this school last year, what can I do to help?" the teacher asked.

"Have you seen the children today, did you see them leave the school?" asked Sam, she was a girl on a mission and knew how to handle these situations.

"Yes I saw the Verde's leave school today, they always hurry home, they left just as abruptly as usual" said the teacher.

"What time was that at?" asked Sam.

"I can't be certain but it must have been around 3.40." The teacher said.

"Thank you very much for your help, this cannot be brought to the official's attention. I would appreciate if you kept this to yourself." Said Sam

"Yes I understand, good luck" said the teacher. Sam hurried back to the car where Mrs Verde was waiting, she climbed into the car and pulled a small note book out of the side compartment and started scribbling notes. Mrs Verde watched in amazement, this girl was so focused and professional, she had never even met her before and she was already helping her family so much.

"Right" said Sam "lets trace the route that the kids take back from school" she placed the key in the ignition and once again the engine sprung to life. They drove around for half an hour with Mrs Verde taking Sam down all the possible routes the kids might have taken. Half an hour later Sam pulled up at the Verde Mansion and was now sure that something had happened to the children. "Ok, Mrs Verde, I am going to call Mr Middleton now, I promise we will find your children. Sam pulled out a blackberry and dialled a number, the phone rang slowly as Sam paced around the room, praying that Mr Middleton would answer. "Hello" a voice rang out through the phone.

"Mr Middleton, it's Samantha Jacobs. I need some help."

"Samantha, what can I do for you?" Mr Middleton replied.

"I am in Sao Paulo visiting some relatives and about 2hrs ago, two of the children didn't return home from school, their names are Ana and Xavier Verde and they are aged twelve and seven. They are over 2hrs late back from school, it's not in character. The children are always home on time. We have been to the school and I spoke to one of the teachers, he definitely saw the children leave Xavier's school. We have traced the 5minute walk home and they are no where to be seen. Mrs Verde doesn't want the police involved. We haven't had a call from the kidnappers yet but I wouldn't be expecting one for about 20 hours yet." Sam had her businesses voice on, she wanted the information across and then some help drafted over immediately.

"Ok Sam, sounds serious. I can have Alpha Force over in around 7hrs, I will try and get them on a flight as soon as possible. Can you send me the address through?" said Mr Middleton.

"Yeah sure, I will email you with the information. Thank you so much for the help." Said Sam

"That's fine, I will be in touch. I will give Alpha Force the details, they will mainly be involved in this, you will be able to contact me through them. Good luck Sam." "Thanks, I will talk to you soon" Sam said before hanging up.

Meanwhile Amber and Hex returned laden with ice creams, Alpha Force were now all sitting on towels at the top of the beach watching the tide go out. Amber's phone rang, "hello" she said

"Hi Amber it's your uncle, I have something for you guys, it's urgent, I need you all on your way back to the hotel now. I will explain everything on the way."

"hang on uncle, I will tell the others" amber said before holding the phone away from her and addressing the team. "Guys, Uncle has a problem, we need to head back to the hotel, he will explain on the way." Alpha Force sprung to life, packing away their beach things and getting the surfboards ready to return. Amber returned to her phone call and her uncle explained the situation, while Amber was on the phone the others went to return all the surfing gear they borrowed. "Meet you back at the car guys" shouted Amber. Amber carried on talking to her uncle all the way to their car which was sitting in the beach car park. All of Alpha Force could now legally drive, Amber stopped outside the small blue golf that they had hired for the trip. She got into the drivers seat and anxiously waited for the others to return. Amber was sitting on the driver's side of the car drumming her fingers on the dashboard

She saw the others appear out of the corner of her eye, she knew that they would all be wanting to know what was going on, so all four of them packed into the car and Amber headed back to the hotel they were staying at. It was a very nice hotel on the coast and they had two rooms between the five of them. Amber briefed them on the problem during the drive. Li in particular was shell shocked; it was the exact thing she had been reading about just hours before.

"So Amber, lets all pack and then meet back in your room. Do we need to book flights?" asked Alex.

"Yeah we do, I will do that once I have packed I will get the earliest flight available, if there isn't one I guess we will have to fly privately." said Amber. They all went off to their separate rooms and started packing. All the boys were trying to separate all their belonging that were just jumbled into one mess on the floor.

"Are these your socks Hex?" asked Paulo

"The ones under your bed?" yelled Hex from the bathroom.

"Yeah they have the days of the week written on the sides." Shouted Paulo

"Yeah they are mine, dump them in my case mate." The girls were now finished packing and burst into the boy's room.

"Hurry up guys" shouted Li "we haven't got all day"

"we're coming" chorused the boys. Amber plonked herself on Hex's bed and pulled out her laptop, she began to book flights to Sao Paulo.

"Ok people, the next flight is in less than 2hrs, we would have to get a serious move on, it's at least 45minutes to the airport" said Amber.

"Can't you get your uncle to fast track us through security and passport control?" asked Alex.

"Well I could give it a go." Replied Amber, she began calling her uncle to ask if he could pull some strings to hurry them onto the flight. "Ok he can get us sent through faster but we still need to be at the airport 30minutes before the flight leaves, which is at 5.00, we should reach Sao Paulo at around 11.00, how long do you boys need to get ready?" asked Amber

"We can be ready in 10minutes" replied Paulo.

"Ok sure, me and Li might go and buy some food for the flight, and shall we rent a car when we get to Sao Paulo or will we make do without?"

"Let's have a look when we get there" suggested Hex.

"Where are we staying?" asked Alex

"We are going to be staying in the Verde's Mansion. I am going to give this girl called Samantha Jacobs a call, apparently she is already there working on the case, she was the one who contacted my uncle."

Amber and Li left the boys to pack and went off to the shop to stock up for the flight, they were wondering down the isles of the supermarket getting water, chewing gum, boiled sweets and crisps. Amber was also getting some real food – sandwiches and small cold meals – she is a diabetic and has to eat regularly. They soon returned to the hotel and waited in the hotel lobby for the boys to come down. They boys came down and they all headed to the golf with their luggage.

"So is everyone ready to catch these criminals?" asked Alex.

"Yeah, they won't know what hit them" commented Paulo.

"I'll drive" said Hex, Amber tossed the keys his way and they all started loading their luggage into the car. Amber sat along side Hex in the passenger seat so she could direct him towards the airport. Li, Paulo and Alex were all packed into the back seat. "Can we have some music Amber?" asked Alex

"sure" replied Amber tuning into the radio. They were soon at the Airport being whizzed through security, they had checked in their luggage and were now waiting to board the plane. They all had plane tickets in first class and once they boarded the plane Amber decided to give them a full briefing on the missing children.

"Right, the children are called Ana and Xavier Verde and they are aged twelve and seven. Their parents are very rich and they have a large house only five minutes away from their school. The children were last seen by a teacher at Xavier's school, he said the children were always in a hurry to get home and that today was no different. I expect someone is going to call demanding money; we need to be there to trace the call. It is also possible that the children might have moved across boarders. We need to be there as quickly as possible" amber finally finished. Li in particular looked defeated, the whole issue seemed to hit a nerve with her, Paulo saw her distressed face and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, she leaned into it gratefully and closed her eyes. The worst was yet to come was all anyone could think of. They all sat back into the silence and waited. No one was sure of what was yet to come and no one could imagine what the children were going through. Hopefully Samantha Jacobs would know what to do.

(A/N Do you guys like small bits of romance or not? I know Chris Ryan never really did much about the characters but I always like the idea of them getting together. Anyway this is my first ever Fan Fiction so any tips would be great. Also any suggestions on what could happen would be nice, I have a few ideas but I don't really have the story mapped out yet. )

It was 11.30 and Alpha Force had just landed, they went through passport control and exchanged some Dollars for the Brazilian currency. They all trailed out of the airport with their luggage. Samantha said she would meet them at the airport, they were just wondering where she had got to when they saw her. She was holding a sign saying Alpha Force and looked only about eighteen. Alex in particular looked slightly love struck, she had long honey blonde hair and brown eyes, she was fairly tall and had a fantastic figure. Alex couldn't stop staring until Amber nudged him in the ribs. "ouch" he complained.

"Do you think she has been told we are kids, it doesn't look like she has seen us" asked Hex. Amber and Li dumped their luggage on the boys and went over to Samantha.

"Hi" said Amber extending her hand to shake Samantha's "my name is Amber Middleton, I am a member of Alpha Force" said Amber

"and I am Li" said Li."

"Hi, my name is Samantha Jacobs, you can call me Sam" Sam said flashing a fantastic smile.

"Well we better show you the other members of our group" said Amber. Her and Li lead Sam over to the boys who were now sitting on the luggage, as the girls came over they stood up.

"Hi I'm Sam" Sam said, Alex was the first to speak up.

"I'm Alex and this is Hex and Paulo" Alex said motioning toward the other two. "Nice to meet you" said Sam, she said it to everyone but Li could tell it was directed at Alex, I wonder what's going to happen there she thought to herself. There was a small silence until Sam spoke up.

"I didn't expect you all to be so young!" Sam explained.

"Yeah well I guess we owe you a slight explanation" said Paulo.

"You can tell me in the car, we should probably head to the Verde's it's a good half an hour" said Sam.

"Sounds good to me" said Amber. The boys picked up the luggage and followed the girls to Sam's car.

"I had to rent a car guys, you wouldn't all fit in my mini."

She took them over to a modern land rover and unlocked it. Amber felt slightly uneasy, it was a strange country and two children had just been kidnapped.

"What's wrong Amber?" asked Hex

"why would anything be wrong?" retorted Amber; she didn't like people fussing over her mental or physical health.

"Amber I can tell something is bothering you, don't try and hide from me" said Hex "look Hex, I'm fine seriously. If anything I am slightly worried about being in a weird city, chasing people who kidnap children." Amber sighed. "It's just a bit creepy, that's all" said Amber. Hex gently took her hand in his and squeezed it; it was dark so no one else saw. Hex leant over and whispered in her ear

"I'll take care of you Amber I promise; I won't let anyone kidnap you." Hex laughed at the last part of the sentence. Amber was just left confused, did he grab her hand as a friend or was it something more? He was impossible to read. Amber gave up for now; she felt bad worrying about her trivial problems when there was so much more to focus her thoughts on.

"So, I believe I am owed an explanation as to who you are, what you do and why you are so young" said Sam with a laugh.

"Yeah, we do" replied Alex.

Alex began the long explanation of how Alpha Force was formed.

"Well all five of us met on a yacht called the Phoenix. We didn't really get on at first, but we all decided to have a picnic on one of the inflatables attached to the Phoenix. We all fell asleep and drifted off, to cut a long story short, we became stranded. Hex got seriously ill; we went off in search of antibiotics and instead found a family being held by pirates. We rescued them and the father, who happened to be a doctor saved Hex. We eventually got rescued and formed Alpha Force, each letter of Alpha stands for each of our names. Amber, Li, Paulo, Hex and Alex. So since then we have been meeting up during holidays and helping people out, undercover drugs, trafficking, and organ selling. Everything criminal basically." Alex finished with a smile; Sam looked around at each person in the car and said

"Wow! I'm not usually speechless." Everyone laughed.

"So Sam, tell us about you" asked Alex.

"Well, I just finished my A levels, I took Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English. I am hoping to have a gap year before university where I am hoping to study Forensic Science. Who knows what will happen after that." Finished Sam. "We need to get back to the Verde's, I am expecting the kidnappers to call at some point, we need to be there." The rest of the drive involved useless banter about each of their lives. By the end of it Sam knew all about each member of Alpha Force and Alpha Force knew all about her. Especially Alex who seemed to cling onto every word Sam said.

It was late when they all finally arrived at the Verde Mansion. However no one was asleep and Alpha Force couldn't rest, they had work to do.

(A/N is it ok? Well I'm going to wait for some feedback before I continue as I have no idea if it's any good, cheers for reading!)

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